Keeping it in the Family
by Nodakskip
Summary: Xander does a favor for an old friend.


**Title:** Keeping it in the Family

**By:** Nodakskip

**Email:** by: Theo

**Rated:** PG 13 if that.

**Disclaimer: **All the characters in the TV universes belong to their various owners, world without end, whatever. Crossover

**Author notes:** I know people will be mad at me for not doing my already WIP fics but this is one of those that wouldn't leave me alone after some DVD watching.

---

**Living Quarters of the Princess of York, Sophie Goodwin**

**Buckingham Palace, London, England**

**November 28****th**** 2004**

Xander shook his head in defeat as his tall, blond and voluptuous female friend laughed her head off. "Well, hey. I told you I would suck at this," Harris said as he took off the plastic guitar-shaped video controller.

"Yeah, but not that bloody bad!" Sophie gushed at him.

"I can't even play a real guitar," Harris admitted. "So how could I have possibly known how to do this right?"

"The great Watcher can't play Guitar Hero," his Slayer laughed again, reminding Xander of his sophomore year of high school; back when there truly had been only one Chosen One in all the world, and he'd thought about playing the guitar in quite a few adolescent fantasies concerning Buffy Anne Summers.

"Well, I can't bend a steel bar with my hands either," Xander told Sophie, coming back to the present. "But I'm still older and wiser in what matters."

She tossed a small pillow at him. "You're only five months older than me."

"Still older."

"Ah yes," Sophie smiled. "My older and mysterious late night visitor."

Harris sighed at the oblique mention of his recent picture in the British tabloids. "Just be glad they don't know who I am."

"Yet," Sophie corrected him. "They will soon enough, you mark my words."

"Charles still wanting to kill me?" the one-eyed Watcher asked. He'd had some concerns about Sophie's boyfriend, a man in the British military who'd recently been told all about the Slayer thing; how his royal girlfriend had been activated as one of the Chosen crowd roughly 18 months ago by Willow's spell.

The blonde Slayer shrugged. "My boyfriend is dealing, but me being able to bench press him now is more his concern than my Watcher being the tall, dark and mysterious pirate type."

Before Xander could reply to that, a knock on the open door stopped him. Sophie's family press secretary, Edwin, came into the room. "Sorry to interrupt, Princess, but the car for Mr. Harris has arrived."

"Ah, I guess that's my cue," Xander said as he went over and hugged his charge. "I'll see you when you get back, okay?"

Sophie nodded. "I'll bring you something from Paris, maybe a fancy beret or something."

A few moments later Xander was walking down the corridor with Edwin. "How's the demonic action as of late?" the American asked.

Edwin looked around before answering. "Only a few vampires have tried to enter the palace in the last week or so, sir. His Majesty the King has placed several mages on the assignment to block her supernatural pull."

"Problem there, Edwin, is that I don't know if that's even possible," Xander said truthfully. "I don't think there's ever been a royal Slayer before to even try to block it. Besides, it was always seen by the old Council as a plus to draw demons to the Slayer."

Edwin stiffened at the mention of the old Council. "Yes, well, I am very glad that Her Highness's calling didn't happen under those…people's reign."

"Me too," Xander told him.

---

**Xander's flat, South London, England**

**Later that night**

Harris had fallen asleep on his couch that night after watching recorded American TV from his satellite dish. He was having a rather weird dream where he was in the old cartoon show he'd watched as a kid, called 'The Snorks', when something cut in rather unexpectedly.

"Huh?" Xander asked as he saw himself bathed in a white light. "Well…I'm not naked, so it can't be the normal high school dream..."

"Oh, you could be naked if you want."

He looked around at the sound of the oddly familiar female voice. "What? Oh, crap!" Harris quickly covered himself up, as he suddenly found himself buck-ass naked. "Hey!"

"Oh, please. Just relax," the female voice said from behind him. "It's not like I haven't seen it all before. Although the way-ugly scars and the eye patch thing is new."

The voice finally triggered a memory in him as Xander spun around. "Cordelia?"

"Yeah, it's me," the one and only Cordelia Chase, former seer and now higher being, told him warmly as she came into view. "And you can stop that, by the way, you're clothed again."

Xander looked and he was indeed clothed again. "Cordy, not sure what to say here. I mean, can't say I've had a sex dream about you in quite a while..."

She folded her arms and stared at him. The imperious glare was something Harris found annoying as Cordy said, "Well, don't you know how to make a girl feel special?"

"I didn't mean it like that…" he stopped himself. "Okay, time to stop arguing with my subconscious."

Ms. Chase dropped her arms. "Look at me, Xander, do I look like I'm here for a sex dream?"

"Well, no, I mean you're not in that sexy schoolteacher outfit-"

"I wore that thing just the one time for you! Will I never hear the end of it?!" Cordelia shook her head.

Harris looked at her in surprise. "Hey, you're the one that said we should videotape it!"

"Yeesh! Not saying that the 'fun' we had after senior Prom wasn't a good thing, Harris, but that was a very, very long time ago." She instructed him again, "Look at my outfit. What does this tell you?"

Xander took in the golden robe she was wearing that had gold trim all over it. "That you're the Pope?"

"No, you DWEEB!" she yelled at him before stopping in surprise. "My God, but I haven't said that in ages. You really do bring out the worst in me…" Cordelia waved her hand and a large white leather couch appeared. "Take a seat."

As he did, she started to explain. "Okay, first up, I'm not a dream or something your mind dragged up from that horrible pit of depravity you call a subconscious. This is me, the real Cordelia. The girl who you grew up with, dated, cheated on and left as friends with."

Harris shook his head. "Cordy's dead, it's been nearly a year since she died - because Angel is a nothing but a blind idiot."

The higher being looked like she was going to smack him for that, but then considered his words carefully and simply shrugged. "Well, okay, he should have known or at least guessed the truth after witnessing the whole sex with Connor thing…but that's not the point."

"Then what is the point?"

"I'm a Power That Be now," Cordelia told him simply.

"Oh sure, 'cause that makes perfect sense," Harris replied sarcastically. "You joined the guys who did that to you?"

"Actually, you're wrong about that. Angel and the rest of us never worked for the real Powers, it was always Jasmine since I was in LA…maybe even before," Cordy said. "Look I have a lot to tell you and not a lot of time, so just shut up and let me talk, okay?"

"Sure," he said with a shrug. Still thinking this was all a dream. "Fire away."

Cordelia leaned back to get comfortable. "You know about what happened to me in LA from our phone calls and the 'talk' you had with Angel," she told him. "What you don't know is that the real Powers sent me to try to get Angel back on track, but all that went spectacularly bad. After they gave Angel the vision of the Black Thorn, well - the Powers screwed up big-time. There was a reason why those guys hadn't been taken down before then, it was in a treaty of sorts. And when the Powers went all stupid trying to fix things after Jasmine's actions…well, there was a penalty clause in the treaty, one that the Senior Partners would have invoked to suck LA and everyone in it into Hell."

"Damn," Harris said to that. He hadn't known his imagination could think up stuff like this.

"Damn is right," Cordelia agreed. "Angel almost damned millions of people because of what he thought I wanted him to do. The only way to stop the Senior Partners was to oust the current Powers That Be, and render the treaty null and void. As it all happened so suddenly I was picked as one of their replacements, so as I said: I'm a Power That Be now. One of five so far, even though it used to be six. He died, just don't ask how or why. Look, Xander, this is going to be really hard for you to understand…but time works differently up here. For you, I died about ten months ago, but for me - that was about three hundred years ago."

This stunned Xander completely. "Three hundred years ago…?"

"Give or take a decade," Cordelia told him impatiently. "Now listen up, all this isn't a social call…I, I need you to save my daughter's life."

Xander Harris burst out laughing, he honestly couldn't help it. "Your WHAT?"

"My daughter," Cordelia glared at him. "And I'm not talking about Jasmine. I meant the child that could have been yours, you idiot…if you hadn't been such a complete jackass during senior year."

Dream or not, Xander couldn't help gulping at the furious look on his ex-girlfriend's face. Then he braced himself as Cordelia calmed down and started to talk again.

---

The next morning, Xander awoke with a start. His head spinning at what he'd remembered from his dream. Dream or vision, he wasn't sure now; because some of the stuff he remembered hearing was just too way out there.

The Watcher staggered into his bathroom and stopped. His bathroom mirror was all fogged up, even though he hadn't taken a shower yet. And words were written on the foggy surface.

IT WAS NOT A DREAM

-CORDY

And the crystal she'd mentioned to him was sitting right there on the counter.

"Oh boy..." Xander said to himself as he went over and picked up his cell phone. Hitting the speed dial, he quickly spoke when the voice answered. "This is Xander Harris, patch me through to Renee." He waited a moment. "Hi, yeah - it's me. Guess it's going to be one of those days…listen, I need you to book me a seat on the next flight to San Francisco. What? No, I don't care if I have to squeeze in with the luggage, just get me on that plane somehow. I've got my passport and everything, just make sure there are no hassles when I get to Heathrow."

---

**1329 Prescott Street, San Francisco, California**

**November 29****th**** 2004**

**5:35 pm**

Xander quickly parked the rental car and dashed up the walkway. Without knocking, he burst into the large home and bolted up the staircase.

"Who the hell are you?" a startled woman yelled as she saw the trespasser.

"No time to explain!" Xander called as he ran past her. He saw the brunette woman wave her hands at him, but nothing happened.

"What the hell-?" Piper Halliwell muttered, as the crystal in Xander's hand heated up for a moment counteracting her power. Confused about whether this guy was a good witch or an upper-level demon, she turned to follow him up into the attic.

Unknowingly to this, two beings in there were having a life and death chat. "Hello, sugar," the large, bearded, male demon said as he held the quarter-demon brunette seer by the neck.

The woman just stared back at him in disgust, she was wearing a red flower print dress without any shoes on. "Did I call you that, ever? What I meant to say was, 'hello, swirling particles of scum'."

Zankou, for that was his name, dropped her and pulled back his hand as Kira braced herself for what she knew would be her vanquish death...

When a small quartz crystal was thrown into the room.

"That was too close," Xander huffed and puffed as he came in and saw the two now-frozen people, the Charmed One not far behind him.

"Okay, that's it. Who the hell are you, buddy!?" Piper demanded as she stopped in shock. "What, what the hell's going on here? When did HE show up?" she pointed at Zankou.

Harris turned to her. "Look, sorry for just barging into your home like this, but we don't have much time. Bottom line, I have to take Kira out of here and make Zankou think he's won today."

"And I should trust you, why?" Piper demanded, still rather confused. "I don't even know your name. And where's Phoebe?"

"Not here, that was Zankou there in disguise all along, now do you want to end this or argue some more? 'Cause we don't exactly have all day to chit-chat!!"

Piper studied the one-eyed man before her. "What exactly did you have in mind?"

"The Avatars, Elders, demons, and even the rest of your family, they all gotta think Zankou here killed Kira," Harris told her. "It's the only way to keep her alive."

"And you care about her, because…?" Piper prompted him.

"Because she's the daughter of a very old friend of mine," Harris admitted to her.

"But she's a demon!" Piper stated. "Okay, she wants to become human - but still, demon here…"

Xander shrugged. "And you're a witch, look lady - apples and oranges right now. Just don't try to stop us as we leave, okay? That's all I need from you. Or else you can have Zankou keep attacking your family while you've got a demon stashed in the house. What's it going to be?"

Piper mulled it over, "Who ARE you?"

"You don't need to know my name. I work for the Watchers Council in England."

The moniker meant nothing to the Charmed One. A few seconds later Piper made her decision, "Okay, take her and git - but I'm watching you, fella. No funny stuff, or you'll regret it."

Xander went over and was about to take Kira's hand when he stopped cold at seeing her face close-up.

"What is it?" Piper demanded.

"Nothing, just…her face. She looks just like her mom when I used to date her in high school," Xander sighed.

"High school?" the witch asked in disbelief, wondering whether this guy was in fact human after all. "Just how old are you?"

"I'm twenty-four in a couple of months," Xander told her as he took Kira's hand.

The Seer suddenly came to life again. "What the heck is going on here?"

"No time to explain," Xander said. "I'm Xander Harris-"

Kira's eyes went wide. "My mom's old boyfriend?! Oh, that explains why I didn't see this coming."

Xander looked over to the floating crystal. "Look, we have to go. As in right now!"

"Yo, question. Why don't I just kill this guy while he's stuck here like this?" Piper demanded, gesturing to Zankou.

Harris glanced at her, "'Cause you can't, okay, not by yourself. Trust me, this isn't the time or place that asshole finally gets his ass vanquished."

"But this would be…" Piper started.

"Don't bother trying to reason with her, it's a complete waste of time," Kira told him. "You should see her bitch at Leo, and he's the so-called 'love of her life'."

"HEY!" the wife and mother growled.

As soon as Kira moved from her spot, a duplicate of her appeared frozen. "Let's get a move on then, baby!" Cordy's daughter urged her rescuer.

Piper followed as they went into the hall, but Xander cut her off. "Better get back, 'cause your sister and husband are about to orb in back there."

"What?" Piper said as she looked back and froze herself.

"Come on!" Xander yelled as he pulled the barefoot woman down the stairs.

"Don't worry, we'll make it," Kira told him. "Seer, remember?"

"And yet, you didn't see me coming?"

"Because my mother sent you," Kira told him as the reached the ground floor and went out the door. "I can't foresee what the way higher-ups are gonna do, but this I can."

As they reached the car, she got into the passenger seat and counted down. "And three…two…one."

Back in the attic the crystal pulsed twice then vanished. And time returned to normal.

Feeling dizzy and having magically been stripped of all memory of Xander and Kira's departure, Piper ran back into the attic at hearing a scream, just as Leo and Phoebe orbed in to witness the fake copy of Kira vanish in fire. Zankou then just tipped his head at them and left.

History resumed course, and the black-clad beings known as the Avatars eventually showed up.

---

**Paul's Café, San Francisco, California**

**Twenty minutes later**

"Will you quit staring at me like that?"

"Yeah, sorry," Xander said in embarrassment. "It's just, you, uh…"

"Look exactly like her, and sound like her too," Kira stopped him. "I know, and it's not like I'm very surprised at meeting you either."

"Why?" he asked her.

Kira rolled her eyes. "Please, I grew up on stories about Sunnydale and Los Angeles! Though Mom never did talk very fondly about many people from the Hellmouth. Not a big fan of blonds and redheads, I can tell you that."

"Cordy wouldn't be," Harris said diffidently. "Now, she said you're estranged from her or something?"

She nodded. "After my father, someone who you never knew, died for the so-called 'greater good'."

"Was he that, uh, Doyle guy?" Xander screwed up his forehead, trying to remember the name correctly.

"No," Kira said simply. "Like I said, you don't know him. Neither does that idiot vampire Angel. Dad was a higher being Mom met centuries ago, after her mortal body died and she ascended." Kira looked upset and told Harris, "So don't ask me any more questions about him, because it's none of your business anyway. Comprende?"

"Okay, fine," Harris said. "Though I still don't understand why you didn't go to Cordy when you had the demons after you."

Kira huffed, "She told me I was making a big mistake going to the Underworld; that I would soon come begging to be let back into the higher realms. No way was I going to give her that satisfaction!"

"Why did you go down there, anyway?" Xander wondered. "I mean, being the kid of a PTB must have been like putting a target on your back."

"Not really," Kira replied with a shrug. "If you recall, Mom had some demon in her after the entire Vision Girl thing. So I have part of the demon essence within me, and no one there knew that mommy and daddy were their mortal enemies. Heck, I've been down there for over four hundred years…."

"Four hundred?" Xander stopped her, surprised. "Uh, Cordy said that she's only been up in that higher realm place for just over three hundred years. So how can you be older than your mother?"

The Seer rolled her eyes and muttered the word "mortals" under her breath. "Okay, pal, for the higher being impaired. Up there time goes faster and down there, well, normal speed doesn't apply either. Hell or, the Underworld, or whatever you want to call it, was set up as punishment for some nasty beings. Its creators didn't want the whole eternal torment thing to pass quickly."

"Then what about when Angel got sucked into Hell 'cause of that Acathla thing?" the guy wondered. "I was told he spent centuries down there while only months passed here. Or what about when Buffy was pulled into that demon work camp place? That went pretty fast compared to our little 'mortal' time."

"What, do you think everything nasty is Hell?" she laughed. "There are dozens upon dozens of hell dimensions. But HELL is constant. Demon dimensions go by their own rules. Like, you think it's 2004 in every parallel world?" Kira saw his look so added, "When I left my home up there, I could go to anywhere and anytime I wanted."

"Like the Nexus Ribbon?"

The Seer had to smile at that. "My mom was right on the Star Trek nerd stuff concerning you."

"Hey, now!" Xander said, mock-offended. "If you want a real Star Trek nerd, I can introduce you to Andrew."

"No-no-no, no way," Kira said to that at once. "Seer here, I don't need to discuss anything with that guy."

Harris leaned back in his chair. "So, then what now? I mean both the good guys and bad guys think you're dead. Just toss on a blond wig or something and lay low?"

"A blond wig?" Kira demanded. "Do I look like Hannah Montana to you?"

"Who?"

"You'll get it in a few years," she told him with a sigh. "But, no. My mom already has something in mind, I'm sure of it."

---

**Cleveland School for the Gifted, Cleveland, OH, USA**

**November 29****th**** 2004**

**9:50 pm**

Principal-slash-Watcher Robin Wood walked down the school hallway with his assistant. "What do you mean, he went off the grid?"

"They just told me Xander vanished, you know…totally disappeared, after that phone call to Renee. Like James Bond when he resigned from Her Majesty's Secret Service," Andrew Wells replied. "It, it could be some secret mission Buffy sent him on?"

Robin stopped. "Considering that Buffy is the one wondering where he went oh-so-suddenly, kind of makes me think she didn't."

"Who didn't what?" Faith asked as she came out of classroom.

Robin sighed. "Xander left London on a red eye to San Francisco without telling anyone, or why he was leaving. He missed two Council meetings."

"He take a Slayer posse with him?" Faith wondered.

"Nope, he just went solo," Andrew told her. "Almost like Luke Skywalker departing Hoth for Dagobah, e-except no R2-D2 of course."

The dark-haired Slayer shrugged, ignoring the typical geek commentary just as Robin did. "Well, if he thought he would need backup, he would have taken it. Boy Toy can handle himself these days."

"Tell that to Willow and Buffy," Robin said with a shake of his head. "You're not the one they keep ringing every five minutes to see if he's been found yet."

Faith smirked, "So just stop answering the phone and let 'em talk to the machine. Isn't that what they're for?"

---

**Unknown location**

**The same time**

"What is it?" Roger Wyndham-Pryce demanded impatiently as he came into the communications room.

The man in black showed him an image on the large screen. "Xander Harris left London for San Francisco unexpectedly. Without informing the so-called new Council."

Roger looked at the one-eyed man's picture on screen. "Speculation?"

The agent pulled up more records. "His charge card shows the use of a rental car, and coffee at a café so far. Plus a purchase from a woman's shoe store."

"Don't tell me that one of Rupert's lackeys is cross-dressing now?" Roger snorted.

"Unknown sir, but I don't…" the agent said as he was cut off by another.

"Sir, we have copies of the security footage from the mall the shoe store is in," that agent said. "It's not much, I'm afraid."

"Play it anyway," the first agent instructed.

The agents and Roger saw a long shot of a barefoot woman in a red dress walking with Xander Harris in an open air mall. "A new Slayer?" the second agent speculated.

"Without filing a report to those damned friends of his?" Roger said. "No. Besides, from what I know this young man is more able to follow procedure than most of that rabble."

"Can we get a closer shot of her face?" the head agent demanded.

"One moment, sir," the man at the computer said. The image on the screen rewound slightly to a frame where the woman was looking towards the camera. It froze and zoomed in. A filter was applied and a clear image came up.

"What the hell?" the first agent demanded, recognizing Cordelia Chase's face. "This is impossible!"

"It had better be, for your sake," Roger said darkly. He glared at his minion, "Or else you will regret reassuring me that that damned demon whore had finally perished."

---

**Nob Hill, San Francisco, California**

**A few minutes later**

"Are you nuts?" the Seer demanded. "You want me to sit on a damn plane for over sixteen hours?"

"How about a boat, then?" Xander offered, annoyed. "A days travel more your liking?"

"No," Kira told him as she grabbed his hand. "Here…"

"Whaaa…" Xander said as the world seemed to lose focus for a moment. When it came back, they were in a different place. Hell, a different country. Harris looked around and recognized his London home, "How the hell did we get to my apartment?"

"I blinked us here," Kira answered with a shrug as she let him go and looked around. "Oh, are you kidding me with this place?"

Xander didn't get it. "What?"

"It's such a single guy place," Cordy's daughter told him.

"Well, gee, maybe that's kind of because I AM a single guy," Harris told her in annoyance. "It's a bachelor flat, not a summer home in the Hamptons."

Kira shook her head. "Well, sorry but I'm not living here, no way no how. We'll have to get someplace bigger."

"We?" Xander stopped her in disbelief. "Whoa, back up, rewind. Who said you were moving in with me, or that I even wanted to stay with you any longer? I did your mom a favor saving your life, Kira. But that's it - believe it or not, I have a number of Slayers who depend on me for a lot of things, especially helping them fight against the vamps. And I don't have time to play domestic servant or anything!"

She looked at him, upset. "Look, pal, I have to keep out of the limelight until the Avatars try their utopia thing. I can't exactly go back to my space in the Underworld, and since the Charmed Ones think I'm dead now, who else am I gonna hang with? I mean, who else do I even know in this world?"

"She's got a good point, you know."

Kira looked around at the disembodied voice, annoyance instantly marring her beautiful features. "Show yourself, mother."

Cordelia appeared in her white and golden robes. "Thank you, Xander, for saving my daughter."

"You knew I would," Xander told her warmly. "Hey, how can you be down here though? I thought you higher Power types weren't allowed to mosey on over?"

"I'm not Jasmine," Cordelia said in annoyance. "Besides, I'm not really here-"

"Enough with the explanations. And why don't you tell him the other reason you sent him to save me instead of one of your damn Champions, mother?" Kira demanded. When Cordelia didn't reply, Kira looked to Xander. "Don't you get it yet? She's trying to set us up."

Xander looked to his ex-girlfriend in shock. "Cordy!?"

"What?" the higher being said defensively. "Is it so wrong for a mother to want her little girl to end up with a decent man?"

"Not one that you've had already sex with!" Kira scolded her. "'Cause it really would be the highlight of my life, to hear him call out your name in bed!"

"He wouldn't!" Cordelia said to her daughter, ignoring Xander's excellent impersonation of a fish. "He may be dense, but Xander's not like Angel. He who calls out 'Buffy'," she added sarcastically.

"Ego much, mother? Besides, that was just a magic fantasy to unleash Angelus," Kira reminded her.

Cordelia didn't let up. "It doesn't matter, besides you could do a lot worse…oh wait, you already have!"

"Okay, time out!" Xander finally got between the mother and daughter, trying to ignore the confusion from their identical faces. "You were hoping to set us up?" he demanded from Cordelia. "Newsflash, Cor, but I don't do relationships anymore…they never end well. And you of all people oughta know that."

"This one will," his old flame told him confidently.

Before Xander could ask how she was so sure, Kira told him. "She's a Power That Be, remember? She'd sic a Cupid on us just to get her own way."

"Like you two would even need one," Cordelia told her daughter. "You already think the eye patch is sexy."

Kira tossed her hands up in the air, "God damn it, mother!"

Xander just went over and sat on his couch, shaking his head philosophically. "Should've just stayed in bed..."

Kira looked over toward her possible future boyfriend and waved her hand. Harris froze in place and then the woman in the red dress said, "Why do you have to keep trying to control my life? I'm four hundred and forty, not four!"

Cordelia looked at Xander with a smile. "Good. You haven't let your higher being abilities get stale."

"Mother..."

"Because I let you go back then, and what did that accomplish?" Cordy asked her. "You squandered your gifts and slept with demons. Besides, dear, you're destined to be with me and the others one day, not down here wasting your life doing things like that."

"It's my life to waste!" Kira told her vehemently. "And if you don't want me down here, why are you trying to get me to jump Xander's bones? You trying to live what could have been through me? Come on, you can't really be that desperate, can you?"

Cordelia looked around the small apartment and then settled on the frozen Xander. Walking over, she bent down to look into his eyes. "Sweetie, when I first went upstairs, the truth is…I would have done anything, given anything, to come back here. Yes, I was raped, robbed and everything nasty you can think of down here. But this man along with a few others showed me that I meant something, that I really could make a difference." Looking back to Kira she kept going, "Then I met your father, and he helped me in so many ways that I can't even begin to explain it. He put me on the right track as a Power. Not as someone's girlfriend, a vision girl, or wannabe actress, but a Power That Be. A truly higher being."

She walked back to her daughter. "I saw you down there, having to giving readings to demons about other demons. You were meant for greater things than that, I promise you. And Xander here can help you realize that, just like your father did for me. You're my baby girl, and I love you with all my heart. But to be responsible for this world someday, you should know some of the good things in it. Not just the bad."

Kira looked down for a moment. "Even if I wanted it, just what do you think'll happen? I get all attached to him, and then watch him grow old and die in fifty-odd years?"

"Your father thought that way as well," Cordy told her. "But you'll see, love conquers all somehow. Give it a chance to work, please."

"He doesn't even have any powers," the brunette said slowly, with a glance towards Harris.

"Not in the way you think of powers, dear. But just because he can't see the future or bench press a truck, that doesn't mean he doesn't matter. Name me any other normal human who's saved the world by himself so many times," her mother replied. "And since you froze him already I can tell you one more thing. But you can't let him know. Promise?"

"Fine," Kira rolled her eyes. "And that would be?"

"You're not the only one in this room who's destined to eventually become a Power That Be," Cordelia answered.

Kira looked at her mom in surprise. "But, but he's a mortal!"

"So was I, once," was her mother's reply. Cordelia reached into her pocket and took out another crystal. "Please, honey, let me bond you two together. Then you can be a part of this world, just like you wanted in that bargain you tried to make with the Elders. And when it's time…you'll both come upstairs and join the ranks of the higher beings."

Kira walked around the room in thought for a few minutes. "He's been in two major relationships in his life, and they both ended badly."

"True," Cordelia said. "So what he needs is a woman who can foresee his mistakes before he makes them, wouldn't you say?"

The Seer sighed and sat down next to the frozen man. "You had better be right about this, mother."

"I am, honey. That much I'm sure of," Cordy replied as she waved her hand over Xander's head.

"Yikes!" Harris stammered as he suddenly saw the two women next to him. "Okay, now what's going on?"

Cordelia knelt down again to speak. "Xander, do you trust me?"

"Uh…possibly," Harris said guardedly. "Depends what you have in mind though, 'cause I recognize that look. Reminds me of when you used to take me shopping at the Sunnydale mall, even though you knew how much I hated it."

The higher being ignored the sarcasm and simply dropped the new crystal into his hand. "This will tingle a bit."

Before the guy could say anything, Kira used her hand to cover his and the crystal. Harris felt lightheaded for a moment, before he noticed Kira glowing for a few seconds. "What did you do, Cordy?!" he demanded.

Cordelia didn't answer the question as she went over and kissed her daughter's head. "You just take good care of my little girl, Xander. Or else your ass is grass, and I'm a lawn-mower!"

And then she was gone.

Kira smiled. "She bonded us, we're linked now so that you can help me see the good here on earth."

"WHAT?"

"We're stuck together, as in till death do us part," Kira said simply. "Mother convinced me to give you a try."

Xander fell back into the couch, "I see. I see. But gee…I normally have women ask before they mystically bond themselves to me!"

"Oh, like you're all that upset about it," Kira replied scornfully. "We both know you've been staring at my cleavage ever since we left the Halliwell manor. And before you ask, yes they're real, no magic involved..." She suddenly wrapped her arms around herself, trying not to shiver. "Hey, can you turn up the heat in here? Now that I can feel cold I can tell you, it's not that nice."

In a daze, Xander got up and wandered over to the thermostat. "How do I get myself into these things?" he honestly wanted to know.

---

**Unknown location**

**The same time**

Roger Wyndham-Pryce walked upon the walkway situated over the lab. One of his agents came up to him and said, "Sir, we've verified that none of our…ah, copies have gone missing. And the original is still safe and sound."

"Then who the hell was that walking around with Harris?"

"We don't know, sir," was the agent's reply.

Roger gripped the railing, as he looked down at the massive cloning tubes that held various clones of Cordelia Chase. Somewhere down there was the original master copy as well; Cordelia's corpse, which had been stolen and a fake substituted for cremation in order to fool Angel and the rest of the Fang Gang.

"Prepare a unit of the androids. It might be time to move up our timetable," Roger told his cyborg minion. As the creature walked off he said to himself, "I WILL find out what it is you're up to, Harris. And if it comes to that, I'll get rid of you and the rest of your friends as well."

The End…for now


End file.
